Yaniv Hayon arrived in Israel with blood on his white shirt and an incredible explanation for how he had helped steady a passenger jet: he watched the Canadian documentary series Air Crash Investigation. According to his account, he had entered the cockpit, restrained an attacking pilot, and pulled back on the controls before a pilot took over. Hours later, he was recounting the ordeal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport in what quickly turned into an election story.
On 30 September, Flydubai Flight FZ1073, travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, diverted to Saudi Arabia after an alleged fight erupted in the cockpit. Israeli officials say the co-pilot stabbed the captain and attempted to crash the aircraft. Passengers described a terrifying descent before they and airline personnel intervened; the aircraft landed safely in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, before returning to Israel later that evening.
Flydubai has confirmed a cockpit altercation but says the reasons and motives are unknown. It suspended flights to and from Israel overnight amid an ongoing investigation. While Netanyahu said Iranian involvement had not been established, he said the United Arab Emirates had agreed to Israeli participation in the inquiry.
The incident occurred just weeks before Israel votes on 27 October in its first national election since the October 7 attack. Security issues continue to dominate election campaigns, but Netanyahu no longer owns the issue as he once did. Polling shows no camp with an easy path to a governing majority, while his coalition trails the anti-Netanyahu parties in aggregate surveys.
The Flydubai drama offers Netanyahu a powerful story: Israelis again under attack, enemies probing for weakness, and a veteran prime minister urging the country to remain vigilant.
In fact, just a day before the incident, Netanyahu put out a video message at an air base in southern Israel, warning Israelis that its enemies might try to attack ahead of the 27 October election. He then warned said enemies: do not “mess” with Israel.
While Netanyahu’s allies linked the attack with the PM's warning, opposition leader Yair Lapid disputed the suggestion that the cockpit attack vindicated the prime minister’s warning. He said that nothing remotely resembling the aircraft incident was discussed at the security briefing. An Israeli political official countered that Lapid had been told of a substantial increase in threats against Israelis abroad. The disagreement quickly moved beyond what happened aboard the aircraft to who had understood the danger, and who was exploiting it.
For Netanyahu, this is familiar campaign terrain. His longstanding political proposition is that experience and vigilance are indispensable in a hostile region. His main formula for winning elections is not to be likeable, but to present himself as the only leader in Israel capable of fending off the many threats it faces.
To be sure, October 7 disrupted this narrative. Since then, Netanyahu has avoided taking responsibility for the failure of 2023. Instead, he insists that Israel has not only recovered, but it has favourably reshaped its security environment.
A frightening attack on an Israel-bound flight and talk of a possible “Israeli 9/11” could reinforce the primacy of security in the campaign. At the same time, it will not erase the fact that the passengers' and crew's quick reaction saved the plane. Regardless of any warning that may or may not have been on Netanyahu’s desk, the state did not save the day.
